Shock jock's producer sacked after massacre jokes

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A producer for a controversial Sydney radio show has apologised
for "sick tweets" about the movie theatre massacre in Colorado.

Producer Bruno Bouchet has been fired by 2Day FM after posting
jokes on Twitter about James Holmes' shooting rampage which killed
12 people at a premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in the Denver
suburb of Aurora in the early hours of Friday.

Bouchet, who was a producer for the Kyle & Jackie O Sydney
breakfast show offered "a sincere apology for my sick tweets" in an
article on the Australian media website
Mumbrella.

"Given that I was so public with my tweets on Friday night, it's
only fair that I be public in expressing my heartfelt apology for
what I did," Bouchet wrote.

"I'm beyond disgusted with myself and will forever live with the
regret of what I wrote and who I've affected. To say that my tweets
were revolting and insensitive is putting it lightly, I honestly
believe I deserve to be unemployed for the rest of my life."

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He said he had been drinking on Friday night when he tweeted
jokes about the shootings.

"I was heading home from a function and as most people do when
they're bored and in the backseat of a cab - I jumped on Twitter.
The story of the Colorado shootings had broken a few hours ago and
I was trying to get my head across the severity of what had gone
down.

"What happened next, I'll regret for the rest of my life. I
started posting jokes about the shootings. Why? It was a mix of
wanting to bring humour to an otherwise tragic situation. It was
also - and I'm being completely up front here - a case of me
wanting some attention...What I posted was dreadful and painted me
as an insensitive and hateful idiot."

Southern Cross Austereo said Bouchet, who was with the show for
two years, had violated the network's social media policy, The
Australian reports.

However, the newspaper said all is not lost for Bouchet, who
remains in Kyle Sandilands' employment as the ghost writer of the
shock jock's autobiography.

"So at least I have that to fall back on," Bouchet told the
paper.

Sandilands' latest on-air antics mean Southern Cross Austereo's
2DayFM is on a short leash as the station fights new licence
conditions, the paper said.

It said onerous broadcasting provisions have been placed on
Sandilands and co-host Jackie O after a string of scandals
including insulting journalists and submitting a teen to a lie
detector test.

They have to apply the "kids in the car test" to their on-air
language including nine banned profanities and no graphic
descriptions of audio of sex or porn.

2DayFM is currently appealing a special change to its licence
condition imposed by the broadcast regulator, the Australian
Communications and Media Authority, as a result of Sandiland's most
recent breach of radio standards, The Australian reported.